Four potential hazards of online advertising.
1. Leakage of private information
In the book, chapter seven used an example of Overstack.com to show what is retargeting. In the book, the author said, remarketing or retargeting is a practice of displaying ads to web users who have visited the site, and I think retargeting also is way that collects customers’ information. Online shopping is already a very popular form of shopping. Thousands of e-commerce companies are using different methods to reach large numbers of customers, such as Amazon, Taboo, and eBay. Some large-scale physical stores also have their online stores, such as Norstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Sophora. When people shop online, we need to leave some of our personal information for registering or delivering, such as a home address, phone number, email, and personal information. Then this private information may be leaked. After the information is leaked, we may receive various fraudulent calls and emails. Here, I share a personally really story. This summer vacation, my friends and I have the opportunity to visit the cities of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego. My friends and I solved the problem of airfare, car rental, and accommodation through Airbnb, Hotel.com, and CheapOair. However, after we have finished the vacation, I have been receiving almost 2 types of fraud calls so far. For example, credit cards were stolen and passport problems. These phones have never been received before visiting these cities. Therefore, I guess that my personal information has been leaked by one or both of these three websites.
2. Fraud
Online advertising fraud is also a potentially big problem. It can cause loss of personal or company financial and material resources. In the article “Online Ad Fraud – Statistics and Trends, Khalid Saleh stated that digital advertising fraud costs $1 for every $3 spent on digital advertising, and online advertisers are expected to inflict $7.2 billion in robotics-worldwide in 2016. In the other article “Digital Ad Fraud 2019-Mobile and Video Remain Riskiest Channels”, the author also mentioned that recent estimates range from $6.5 billion to a maximum of $19 billion, and this range suggests that measuring the true impact of fraud is difficult. Therefore, it is important how do we prevent fraud online advertising so far.
3. Advertising increases product costs and passes them on to consumers
Advertising is the reason for the necessary cost of doing business because these companies or products must be marketed in order to attract customers and create profits. Regardless of any marketing method, it is the cost to the company. In order for the company to pay these costs and make a profit, the price of the product must include these costs. Before, in the BA590 class, I had the opportunity to analyze a case about the Brandless company. This is an online sales company that sells lifestyle goods, food and health products. In this case, the author mentioned that 80% of the price makes for packaging and marketing. Therefore, advertising must increase the cost of products, and the customer will pay for these advertising fees.
4. Advertising distorts reality and creates unrealistic expectations
These online advertisements are sometimes unrealistic, sometimes causing customer property damage and even physical harm. In order to attract customers and increase sales, the company often uses exaggerated pictures to show the temptation of the product. Still, many products are not as magical as propaganda. For example, some weight-loss ads, these companies that produce diet pills usually choose some physically perfect women to advertise to convince customers to buy products. These ads are of course useful because they give hope to people who need to lose weight, hope that the hope is like advertising. In fact, the models in the ads themselves are good bodies, not because the products they use become perfect.
Eight codes of ethics for digital marketers
1. To ensure that customer information is safe, you are not allowed to disclose customer information. In our lives, there are many companies or individuals who specialize in selling other people’s information to make a profit.
2. Advertisers must regulate their behavior. According to the textbooks, we can know that advertisers have a lot of power to determine the content, size, and delivery of the ads.
3. There must be clear legal provisions to limit the online advertising of the current model.
4. Network supervision is also an effective way. Any viewer sees bad online ads. Complaints can be made and relevant departments respond.
5. Establish the credibility of the company or product.
6. To be honest for every customer. This is very difficult, but it is also important.
7. Make sure the product content matches the ad. There are more exaggerated online ads that do not match the product.
8. Every advertiser should be responsible for ensuring the security of the advertisements they send.
Reference
Khalid Saleh. Online Ad Fraud – Statistics and Trends. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/online-ad-fraud-statistics/
Nicole Perrin(2019). Digital Ad Fraud 2019-Mobile and Video Remain Riskiest Channels. https://www.emarketer.com/content/digital-ad-fraud-2019
M.T. Wroblewski (2019). Negative Impacts of Advertising. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-impacts-advertising-22146.html
Scott Mccoy, Andera Everard, Peter Polak, and Denis F. Galletta. The effects of online advertising. https://www.gwern.net/docs/traffic/2007-mccoy.pdf
